The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-10-02

back few yards to hold consultation,
and the miner carefully studied the lay
OF the land. He was of the opinion
that it was short, dry rift, with cave
at the far end. Three sides we're en-
closed by earth and rock, and our only
way was to attack the men from above.
How high we would have to climb or
what the difficulties we could not say.
We were not three minutes in deciding
to make the attempt, and we prepared
Tor 1t by leaving coats, vests, hats and
boots behind. We began the ascent
about hundred feet back from the
mouth of the rift, and l do not believe
two panthers could have done better.
The side of the mountain was thickly
covered with cedars, vines and rocks,
| and progress was made almost entirely
by creeping. Once we drew ourselves
up cliff full twenty feet high by a
grapevine hanging down, and again,
we made use of tree to seek higher
elevation. We had been going up for
half an hour before we bore off to the
right in the direction of the rift. We
then had to move far more cautiously,
and presume it was q full hour from
the timeswe left the valley before we lay
on our sLomachs hundred feet above
the campfire and looked over. The
men were directly beneath us, seated
! close together, and were smoking as
they counted the money.
We had but one way to attack. Luck
lily for US it was straight descent.
| could have dropped a coin fair upon
the hat of the man beneath me. We
were out upon rocky shelf, but there
were loose stones of all sizes all ABOUT
us. l selected one weighing about
twenty-five pounds, the miner got one
equally as large, and we carefully crept
back to the edge with them. The fall
of the smallest pebble would startle the
men below, and we used as much eau
ton as if our lives would pay the for
felt. After bit we were ready. The
men had not moved. For about q
minute lost my nerve. 1t seemed a
horrible thing to do. Had / been alone
l believe l should have relented. The
miner seemed to read my thoughts, and
he put his mouth to my ear and whiS-
pered:
Remember how they shot the ranch.
man, and remember that they took ouI
every shiilingi"
We poised the stones on the edge OF
the cliff, and at whispered Now
from him We dropped them. l heard
them strike, and drew back. He peered
o .er. and after a moment recovered his
balance and said:
mo we can go down! Those chaps
will never rob another coach!'
1t took US longer to go down than to
come up, but we made the descent in
safety, and walked around to and ur
the rift. The fire had nearly died out
We replenished it. and then saw that
both men were dead. 1t was horrible
sight and one l do not care to describe
Our rocks had fallen down sQuarely
upon their heads, and you can imagine
the result. There was dry, airy cave
but few feet away, and the gang had
made the place rendezvous for long
time. We recovered every dollar our
coach had been robbed of and more than
as much again which had been taken
from others. The cave had big supply
OF firearms, blankets and provisions,
and in a mail bag hanging on the wall
were ten gold and silver watches. We
| got altogether sixteen watches, five or
six valuable pins and firearms worth at
least 5000. We not only secured the
wealth, but We made an even divide and
| kept every dollar of it. An attempt
was made in Stockton to compel US to